Letting go of little frustrations

In Bratislava central station, my sister and I are waiting with a hundred or so other travellers for information on our delayed train to Budapest.

We’ve been on our holiday in Europe for four weeks now. As we wait here quietly I’m reflecting with amusement on how we’ve dealt with these minor annoyances daily.

Most people expect holidays to be a break from these types of small things that cause problems in our everyday life at home. Perhaps some holidays are that way;

Perfect. Seamless. Without fault.

Instead we’ve missed connecting trains on multiple occasions because of delays, we’ve had cancelled trains, noisy rooms, smelly roommates, creaky beds, showers that don’t drain, hot non-air-conditioned rooms, a creepy 50 year-old drunk lingering and watching us in our shared room and we’ve missed out on some activities we wanted to do because of unfavourable weather. Almost every beautiful and historic structure in Europe right now appears to be covered in scaffolding.

All these things are small problems, petty things to be annoyed with. Every single day people are bombarded with these little annoyances that crease their otherwise smooth day. Especially at home, it’s easy to let these things wear on you over time.

Accumulating annoyance becomes exhausting over time. We can become dysthymic, or displeasured with life.

To stew over these small things magnifies them so much we might not enjoy our trip at all.

Instead, my sister and I have used these little annoyances as opportunities to practise letting go. We acknowledge and feel the frustration briefly and then laugh and remain in the present.

There is so much so far that has gone right for us and that is what we choose to focus on.

There’s so much pleasure in just letting things be.

Right now we are passing fields of sunflowers as far as the eye can see and my heart is filled with joy. Their faces are all turned to the sun; fields of yellow happiness!

Wherever you are in the world today, practise feeling your emotions totally in the moment and then letting them go. Acknowledge that things may be frustrating you, but it is what it is.

Let go, and just be!

One thought on “Letting go of little frustrations

  1. loochyloo says:

    I visited Bratislava, Budapest and Vienna at the beginning of June and also experienced some of this. We were also late arriving to every country because of travel issues and it was so hard not to get stressed out and let it ruin the holiday! My folks said to me “well, either you could be on holiday in the sun or you could be stuck at work right now” and that definitely cheered me up!

    I’m glad you didn’t let anything get you down!

Leave a comment